Contributors
The following list of writers, artists, professors, shopkeepers and activists contributed to the publication of Do Justice:
G. Carol Bomer began working professionally as a painter in 1976 after moving to the U.S. from Alberta, and has shown nationally and internationally. Carol's work seeks to evoke both image and impression, the tangible world and the spiritual world. Her work has been called "a silent form of poetry." She views her work as "a form of play rejoicing before the face of God" (Rookmaaker), This is reflected in the name of her Asheville workspace, Soli Deo Gloria Studio. Learn more about Carol’s work at www.carolbomer.com.
Byron Borger owns, with his wife Beth, Hearts & Minds Bookstore in central Pennsylvania. He is also an associate staff member of the CCO, a campus ministry organization that focuses on discipling college students to live out their faith in every aspect of their lives. Byron writes about books regularly at his Booknotes blog.
Will Braun is co-editor of Geez Magazine, writer and aspiring farmer. His background includes advocacy and organizing around impacts of industrial development on indigenous people and lands in northern Canada. He finds inspiration cycling from one monastery to another. He has written for Sojomail, Znet, rabble.ca and Radical Grace magazine.
Katie Doner is a senior at Houghton College from Beaverton, Ontario, with a double major in Intercultural Studies and Art with concentrations in Development and Photography. She has a special interest in cross-cultural photography and hopes to work in communications for a community development organization in the future.
Daniel Garcia teaches film production in Calvin College’s communications program. As a Peruvian transplant, he does his best to introduce friends to culture from the southern hemisphere. He is currently working on a documentary covering the history of philanthropy in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Paul Haan is the Executive Director of the Healthy Homes Coalition of West Michigan, a non-profit dedicated to eliminating environmental health hazards in children's homes. He has a background in community organizing, is intrigued by local electoral politics, and is committed to preserving open and public spaces in a county that is quickly becoming one big subdivision. In his spare time he can either be found ice skating with his 3-year-old daughter Abigail Violet, or tending a 2,000 square foot plot in his neighborhood's community garden.
Abby Jansen teaches social work and sociology courses at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. She holds degrees in social work from Dordt College and the University of Michigan. Abby worked for Bread for the World as an organizer for the ONE Campaign and continues to be active in hunger and poverty issues as a volunteer.
Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat is a biblical scholar, gardener and homeschooling mother. She is adjunct professor of biblical studies at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, and co-author, with Brian Walsh of Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire and editor of The Advent of Justice. Sylvia lives on an organic, solar-powered farm in Cameron, Ontario.
Joseph Liechty is currently a professor of peace studies at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana after having worked on the issue of sectarianism in Northern Ireland for over 20 years.
David Malone teaches English at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, where he lives with a fifteen-year-old, a ten-year-old, a six-year-old, and a smart, funny woman named Vicki. The book currently on his nightstand are Bleak House by Charles Dickens and Best American Essays of 2007.
B. Jo Ann Mundy is a bi-vocational community organizer and local church pastor. Having written a doctoral dissertation on Sacred Action to Bring Reconciliation and Claim an Anti-Racist Identity, she is creative in developing strategies, sacred and secular, to open community conversations around the subjects of anti-oppression, anti-racism and social justice.
Erin O’Connor-Garcia graduated from Calvin College in 2005 only to find her way back a year later to Calvin’s Student Activities Office. She lives in the neighborhood of Alger Heights in Grand Rapids, Michigan where she loves sharing new recipes, cheap-ish wine, and good films with her husband, Daniel, and their snow-loving-wonder-dog, Conrad.
Rev. Peter Sawtell is the director of Eco-Justice Ministries (www.eco-justice.org), an organization that helps churches answer the call to care for all of God's creation, and develop ministries that are faithful, relevant and effective in working toward social justice and environmental sustainability.
Adam Smit is a graduate of Dordt College and semiprofessional drifter. He has studied theatre, psychology, and third world development in a variety of settings. He currently resides in Malawi, Africa, where he volunteers wherever he can be of use.
Charles Snyder is a freelance photographer and beekeeper in northwest Indiana.
Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma is the publications director for *culture is not optional, which includes editing the bi-weekly catapult magazine. Getting her hands dirty in the garden, commuting by bike and getting caught up in rolling conversation around a big kitchen table are among her chief delights.
Rob Vander Giessen-Reitsma is the Executive Director and graphic designer with *culture is not optional. With his wife Kirstin and the help of the community, Rob founded the fair trade store World Fare in Three Rivers, Michigan in 2003.
JoAnn Van Engen lives with her husband, Kurt Ver Beek and kids, Anna and Noah, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. She and Kurt run Calvin College's Honduras program, work with the Association for a More Just Society (www.asjhonduras.org) and hang out as much as possible in their very cool neighborhood.
Fred Van Geest teaches political science at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. His time at Bethel follows eleven years teaching at Dordt College and one year at the American University of Beirut.
Andrew VanStee is a senior at Calvin College where he co-chairs the student social justice committee and the Faith and International Development Conference. He is also the current Resident Assistant on Calvin’s Mosaic floor, a multicultural on-campus community. He is currently interested in figuring how nations collectively deal with past traumas.
Rachel VanZanten is from Grand Rapids, Michigan and is a senior Nursing student at Calvin College. When she’s not at the hospital saving lives, you can find her on the ski slopes, listening to the Wicked soundtrack, or pondering the finer points of liturgical theology.
